Three

This is a little scary to post because it is about racism and that’s always a little scary- right?  Is that because I am white?  But more so, because I am a part of the system that has systematically oppressed and been at the top of the hierarchy.   In my classroom this year I have heard kids make jokes about race and ethnicity.  A teacher across the hall from me has been called to the principal’s office for trying to teach the students about how painful it was to pick cotton.  A few years ago my school introduced a program titled called the “Black Scholars” initiative.  We provided rewards for any black student in the school that received high grades and good attendance.  One of my Asian students came to me and asked why there was no “Asian Scholar” program.  I felt so incredibly disheartened to be a part of a system that had created this exclusionary program.   

I think whether or not I was “taught not recognize privilege,” (McIntosh, 1988) once I entered the public school system there was no way for me to ignore white privilege.  It surrounds me on a daily basis.  The only way to address it is to talk about it.  I have found my kids are willing and need to talk about it. 

I teach seniors.  These students are applying for college.  I think this is one time when being white and male may no longer be an advantage.  There is so much scholarship money for any other race or ethnicity- any minority.  I encourage my students to work hard and apply for any scholarships they can.   

Lately in my leadership classroom we have been talking about Jeremy Lin, the NBA overnight superstar.  For the most part, we have talked about some the things the media has reported and the new Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream flavor that was released.  One day we discussed whether or not the flavor was offensive, if the company was doing this as an honor to the basketball player, and whether or not the students would want an ice cream flavor released with tid-bits of their ethnic/ racial ties.  The overwhelming response was that the ice cream was something cool (no pun intended.)  Even though Jeremy Lin is from the United States and the ice cream contained fortune cookies, the kids thought it was more a pop-culture issue.  (I know these are high school kids, but I still think it’s an interesting study- I polled almost 85 kids.)  They also felt the name of the ice cream was not offensive. 

 

Ok, so I know the ice cream involves stereotypes that are not ideal, but my kids didn’t find them offensive.  Obviously enough people out there did, and Ben & Jerry’s issued an apology and changed the ingredients of the ice cream (that was only offered at the Harvard location.)  But I still think we are moving to a better place.  Maybe some of the issues that I’ve tried to work through in my blog today are slowly moving to a place where I feel more comfortable dealing with privilege.  Peggy McIntosh says we need to use “arbitrarily awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base.”  So, I think I will continue to try to do this.

At my school, we no longer have the “Black Scholar” program.  We have a rewards program for all students that earn good grades, and the teacher that  was in trouble told me a joke yesterday about…ask me if you want to know!

McIntosh, P. (1988). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In J. Noel (Ed.),Multicultural Education (pp. 53-55). Sacramento: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.